The New Year
by slytherinslut13
Summary: When Ginny goes back for her final year of schooling, she reunites with old friends... and old memories.


Ginny paused in front of the immense doors and took a glace around the green lawns that surrounded the old school. Ginny closed her eyes to steady herself against the memories that the grounds brought back.

_Flashback_

_Ginny held Anna's hand as the life drained from the older girl. Anna had been attacked by one of Greyback's people; her entire stomach was missing._

"_Could you get my mother, please?" Anna whispered to Ginny. Ginny couldn't respond. Anna's parents had been killed a few months ago._

"_It's all right." Ginny found herself soothing the girl. "It's okay. We're going to get you inside."_

"_But I want to go home." Anna said raggedly, drawing on her last breaths. "I don't want to fight anymore."_

_Ginny blinked back tears. "I know. It's going to be all right." Ginny sniffled a bit, bowing her head over Anna's body. Ginny had never been one for religion, but she found herself praying then._

"_Dear God in Heaven, please grant Anna entrance into your abode. Let her be reunited with her parents and sister." She whispered in her head. When Ginny looked back at Anna, the girl was dead. Ginny squeezed her hand as tears started slipping down her face. She took a deep breath to steady herself, and smelled something very familiar. She looked up, but there was no-one there. Ginny continued…_

"Ginny?" A less-vacant-than-normal voice said while its owner, Luna Lovegood, touched Ginny's elbow. "You alright?"

"Yes… no." Ginny sighed. "Anna Sackrider." Ginny finally said. Luna nodded, understanding. They had both seen more than their fair share of death in the past year.

"Let's go in." Luna tugged her friend's robe.

Ginny nodded her assent. "Did you find you father?" she asked after a while. "I meant to ask during the summer, but…" she trailed off.

Luna turned her head away. "Too many funerals. I know." She was quiet, and Ginny started to wonder if Luna was going to answer her original question. "I found daddy… what was left of him, at least."

Ginny gasped. "Ginny, I'm so sorry! Who did you stay with, are you okay?"

"I'm… as well as may be." Luna leaned into Ginny. "I asked Kingsley for help, and he found him. He had gone insane… the Scamanders found him in their rosemary bushes. I stayed with them… Their son, Rolf, has been helping me a lot." Luna shrugged. "I suppose that the Death Eater didn't take to kindly to him after my escape." Luna sighed and blinked back tears. "We should hurry. I don't want to miss the pudding." She changed the subject.

Ginny and Luna ran into Neville on the way there. He was staring at a patch of red on the floor.

"Neville! You returned!" Ginny threw her hands around his neck.

"Not really… I'm training as Sprout's assistant. She lost an arm in the battle." He said sadly, rubbing a hand over his face. "I dunno if I can do this, guys… everything reminds me of…"

Ginny and Luna didn't need for any more embellishment. The three of them linked arms and strode into the Great Hall. Ginny didn't let herself look at any of the people openly staring at the three of them, nor did she pay any mind to the whispers. Luna broke off to sit at the Ravenclaw table, and Ginny left Neville to find himself a seat at the High Table while she sat herself at the Gryffindor Table. Peakes, Coote, and Dezmelda Robbins, her old Quidditch Team, sat themselves around her, and Ginny preoccupied with the wood of the table in front of her.

Flitwick was doing the sorting. Ginny envied the new first years who had not had to go through the school last year, who had not felt the war as harshly.

"Hello. You must be Ginny." A small voice made her look up. There was a sandy-haired little first year girl looking at her. "I'm Emilie. I remember you from… Colin's pictures." Her voice trailed off as she met Ginny's expressionless gaze. "My full name is Emilie Creevey."

"Oh." Ginny said. "I'm sorry. Colin was a great friend." She found that she couldn't say anything else, so she looked up at the staff table to distract herself. Her eyes widened as she realized where she was sitting. Tears pricked at her eyes, then began to fall as McGonagall started her speech. Ginny's plate sat where, just a few months ago, Tonk's bubblegum-pink haired head had rested. She tried unsuccessfully to not cry, but as McGonagall was announcing the new teachers for DADA and Transfiguration, she couldn't hold them back any more. She got up from the bench and sprinted out of the Great Hall, her face in her hands, towards the nearest loo. She didn't leave until the feast had ended and everyone was back in their common rooms.

Three days later, Ginny found herself in front of the DADA classroom. She took a deep breath and opened the door. Most of the class was already there, as was the professor, whose name she hadn't caught, due to her hasty exit from the Great Hall.

As soon as everyone was there, the professor introduced herself. "Welcome, class. I'm Professor Comeru. I'm going to start by assigning you seats in alphabetical order, so I can learn all your names easier." The class groaned in unison. "Only for the first week or so, don't worry." Comeru put the class in alphabetical order, so, obviously, Ginny was last to be called.

"So, you're a Weasley, then?" Comeru said softly as she pointed Ginny to her seat.

"So?" Ginny said rudely. Comeru's tone of voice reminded her of Malfoy's.

"So, don't expect me to give you special treatment because your family is close to Harry Potter." Comeru breathed in her ear. "Or because you've been in a few spats."

Ginny stared, open-mouthed, as the professor walked away. Had Comeru really just said that?

Comeru strode up to the front of the class. "Now, let's begin!" Comeru wheeled a blackboard from one side, where it was half-blocked by a cage of some sorts, to the front. Ginny's eyes, however, stayed on the wall that the board had previously blocked. There was a splotch of something she knew to be blood at about knee height.

Comeru had noticed what she was staring at. "They, um." She cleared her throat. "They weren't able to remove some of the bl… stains, because they had soaked in so much."

Ginny swallowed back bile as the class paled.

_Flashback_

_Ginny screamed again as Amycus Carrow raised his wand over her. "Sectumsempra!" He crowed, enjoying her pain. Blood from Ginny's stomach sprayed the wall and her own face. It was hot and tasted salty._

"_Please…" Ginny whimpered._

"_Crucio!" Amycus kicked her, the toe of his boot going into the gash on her stomach. "Do not talk, wretch! Crucio!"_

There was an awkward pause, and Ginny pressed a hand to her mouth. It didn't work. She ran outside and vomited what little lunch she had eaten onto the flagstones beneath her. She cleaned her mouth and the floor, then went to the Headmistresses office to talk over tea with the woman that had become a good friend in the past year.


End file.
